Off-Broadway, lively rendition of lesser Williams play

Tennessee Williams had a lot to say about sensitive souls, sexual yearning and dissolute lifestyles in his impressive body of work.

Jennifer FarrarThe Associated Press

Tennessee Williams had a lot to say about sensitive souls, sexual yearning and dissolute lifestyles in his impressive body of work.

One of his lesser-known memory plays, about a young writer coming of age in a seedy boarding house in New Orleans, is currently being presented off-Broadway as "The Wooster Group's Version of Tennessee Williams' 'Vieux Carré.'"

The exuberant production at the Baryshnikov Arts Center delivers a lively, accessible adaptation of "Vieux Carré" with the experimental Wooster Group's customary irony and artistic intensity.

The story features residents of the flophouse in the French Quarter where Williams stayed in the 1930s, experiencing his sexual awakening as he began his writing life. The central character, called the Writer (Ari Fliakos), is recalling these youthful days, conjuring the "ghosts" of his long-ago, quirky neighbors.

The troupe smoothly develops a debauched atmosphere of passion and desire, failure and loneliness, while haunting vignettes whirl across the stage or flash on video screens like hallucinations.

Fliakos gives a thoughtful, intelligent portrayal of the Writer, conducting his moody ruminations and fevered typing on a 21st-century keyboard with dignity even when partially clad. His fellow tenants cling to faded dreams, still seeking human connections and solace despite their squalid surroundings.

Kate Valk expertly plays Mrs. Wire, the demented landlady, as well as Jane Sparks, a sweet-natured woman who has bad luck with men and her health. Valk alternates with aplomb between the harsh cruelty of Mrs. Wire and the breathless, lonely pleas of Sparks.

Scott Shepherd also handles two roles with brio. As the tubercular, lecherous but sensitive Nightingale, he is comically led around the stage by a large rubber phallus attached to a wire. Yet Shepherd gracefully imbues this elderly gay man with credible humanity and seen-it-all tenderness toward the Writer.

Jane Sparks shares her residence with Tye McCool, a promiscuous, bisexual man played with studly gusto by Shepherd.

For an excursion into wildly successful experimental theater, this "Vieux Carré" is well worth the trip for theatergoers. The limited run has been extended through March 13.

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